


The Curve of the Sky

by booktick



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Flirting, Campaign 2 (Critical Role), Episode: c02e062 Domestic Respite, F/F, Falling In Love, Implied/Referenced Character Death, OR IS IT, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Touch-Starved, Wildemount Campaign Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-02-29 10:26:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18776404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booktick/pseuds/booktick
Summary: "Are you secretly in love with me?"





	The Curve of the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of this franchise.

* * *

Okay, new plan. She wouldn't buy them, no, pick them. Wait, no.  _Shit._ Xhorhas doesn't have flowers, not really. Change the plan. She'd...gather...weeds? No, no, that wasn't right. This seemed harder than it was supposed to. When it came to things like a stakeout or a team mission--she had a role, a way to turn, to move. This was nothing like that. She had no idea where to take the next step.

She didn't even realize she was locked in this daze until a hand pressed down upon her shoulder. Her entire being jolted, fists up, ready to attack. She lifted her head, chin to the air, and eyebrows buried between her eyes. They could have rivaled her frown to be honest. Instead of an enemy, pink met her eyes.

"Hey," the Firbolg nodded "Got some tea. You look like you need some." He sat down across from her, already placing a teapot on the table.

When did they even get--Okay.

"Yeah..." Beau lowered her fists of glory, "Sure. Uh, thanks, Deuces."

"No problem," Caduceus smiled. 

 She didn't move to pick up a cup right away. Instead, her fingers remained pressed flat against the table, only after a moment did she drag her fingers down the surface and back to her lap. Her gaze fell over the tea that Caduceus poured into the cup, tried to focus on how nice it smelled and that it was probably made out of more dead people. That was always...interesting, she figured. Before the group, she never drank dead people. Hell, never thought she'd step across Empire lines so soon. Yet...her she was, across Empire lines, consuming the fallen and crushing on a best friend. 

Way to to, Beau. Really outdid yourself this time.

She shut her eyes for a moment, a deep breath before she opened them again. Caduceus remained sat, already drinking from his own cup and two bright eyes settled on her the entire time. Her lips twitched at the corners, not a smile and not quite a frown either. Beau nodded, which had the Firbolg nod in return. Eventually, she picked her cup up. 

"So," Beau gestured to him with her cup. 

His voice was so soft, so _gentle._ "Yea." He smiled.

"You, uh," she shrugged "Got something on your mind?"

"Always got something rattling around, sure. Plenty. What about you? You, uh, got something, mmm, stirring inside?" He continued to drink his tea.

Good one, Deuces. He threw the ball back into her court. Smart. If she could pinpoint the exact cause of what stirred deep inside, she'd gladly expose it. That's what Beau did when trouble came knocking. But she was good at hiding it too. At least, she thought she was until one smiley Firbolg offered her tea. Fjord kept saying she should work on her...approach to people. Caduceus was just trying to help.

"Me?" Her shoulders met her ears? "Dunno. Guess this is just...new. Y'know?" She waved a hand in the air, "First time out of the Empire. Like really out of it. Jester's mom's was at least familiar and..." _And felt like home._

"Yeah." Caduceus nodded.

Damn this dead people tea was _good_.

"I'm just trying to figure out where I stand I guess." She ran her thumb over the rim of the cup, "With Dairon, it's different. It's training...with someone I trust. I sort of, kinda, know what to expect? I know what my next move is gonna be like _that_. No second thinking it. Guess that's one of my vices, dunno." She snapped her fingers.

"Well," Caduceus looked down at his own cup "I think you've made a lot of choices that led you to where you are today. Sometimes the choices weren't...exactly where you would have liked them to go."

"I can drink to that," she scoffed and took another sip from her cup.

"And other choices helped strengthen not only you but your bonds to the world. You learned. Adapted. Even in uncharted lands." He lifted his head, "I mean, I don't know many monks that can give a performance like back at the mine."

"You don't know a lot of monks, huh?"

"I don't know a lot of monks," his smile grew as he drooped his eyelids "But. I like to think I know you, Beauregard."

"Hn." She tried to nod, to reassure herself of all the things Caduceus was saying, "I mean, I am pretty well versed in humiliation."

"Yes, yes you are." 

That got Caduceus Clay one genuine Beau smile, "Thanks, Deuces."

"Anytime." Caduceus gestured to her with his cup.

The silence that followed that was thicker than the tension back home--if she could call it home. When you're not wanted somewhere it's hard to do that, she knew that far too well. The tea was good but it was hard to pretend like it was  _that_ interesting. Whether Caduceus noticed or didn't wasn't, like most things with him, clear. All that flooded her mind was blue and smiles and giant lollipops. And then Jester had to go and be so damn cute, bunking up in the house in Xhorhas. The Xhorhouse? Xhorhause?  _The house._ Their house...the Mighty Nein's.

Were they family now? They all fit into the place so neatly...well, _almost_ all. In her head, purple blurred into red and her stomach churned. The bile burned her throat as she swallowed hard. Whether Caduceus noticed, he didn't say or she simply didn't hear...or want to hear. Beau tried to think of something brighter, happier..safer. Grey turned to blue. She found her original thoughts as donuts and lollipops flooded her mind for a second time.

 

Jester was...so different and familiar at the same time. She'd grown attached so fast. It terrified her really. She didn't really...know what to say or to do about...whatever this was or wasn't. It wasn't like she thought they'd go run off and get married or be a couple or...well, Beau knew that things weren't so green on the other side. Not everything works out and sometimes hearts get broken...or mended. And some hearts aren't noticed at all. And that was just how it w-

Two blue arms pounced, "Beau!" The same pair of arms wrapped around Beau's neck and, for a moment, Beau was on alert.

The hair on her neck and arms shot up. Her cup nearly fell from her hands. The way her heart moved was a lot like how she felt around Jester, who seemed responsible for the current predicament she was in. Jester leaned in past her shoulder and came into a partial frame for her to see it was, indeed, her ally. It was all teeth the Tiefling's smile. Beau swallowed hard, didn't want to end up drooling in front of the Clerics.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before offering a smile of her own. It didn't feel like much compared to Jester's but Fjord said she had a killer smile.

...or was that the smile of a kille--It didn't matter. Jester was staring at her now, a tilted head and smile gone. Shit, had she said something without thinking?"

Beau buried her eyebrows and tilted her chin to the air, "Oh, uh, hey, Jess." Still holding the smile despite her worries.

"You and Caduceus had tea?" 

"Oh, do you want some-" she looked away, and as her reward for keeping it somewhat together, Caduceus was getting up from his chair, to leave her alone with Jester, for a moment alone between just the two of them, no doubt.

The traitor.

The Firbolg smiled, never really having lost his smile to begin with, "I'll get us some more cups." His hand came down, gentle as a feather, on Jester's head with a single pat as he walked on by.

The blue Tiefling immediately slid into the now absent chair, hands folded and grin upon face once more. Beau swallowed the tension in the air and it let it crawl back behind her ribs with her heart. Her cup, eventually, found its' way back to the table as she lowered her hands. She hadn't even realized she lifted her arms in the first place.

Jester kept her hands under her own chin, elbows on the table "Hiiii, Beau."

"Hey." Her laugh was meant to be more of a scoff, instead, it cracked 

"Whatcha thinkin' about?"

...was that a trick question?

"Oh. Just...thinking about things I guess." That wasn't exactly a lie, "Nearly died getting here, y'know?" A thought,  _Some of us **did** die, _crawls into the back of her mind.

"And now we have a home." Jester nodded.

"A home." Beau repeated, voice much softer.

A hand left Jester's chin and reached out, covering one of Beau's "It's okay, Beau. You don't need to worry. I'm real good at healing now, y'know?" 

Beau can't help but wonder though...

"We protect each other. I'll protect you." The Tiefling nods, so certain, so  _sure_.

Does Jester know? Does Jester...

Beau, for a breath or more, finds her voice: "And I'll protect you." She looks down and her fingers have laced with Jester's. 

Beau is home.


End file.
